


Gentle is the Rest of Those Who Lead with Love

by natcat5



Series: Dark Month 2015 [16]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Curses, Everyone Loves Tsuna, Multi, Sleeping Beauty - Freeform, family as Family, sleeping curses, true love's touch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-27 08:20:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5041018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natcat5/pseuds/natcat5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Boss is sleeping again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gentle is the Rest of Those Who Lead with Love

 

 

 

\--

Tsuna is sleeping again.

He’s sprawled out on top of his desk, like something’s knocked him out from behind and laid him flat. Actually, it‘s possible someone _has_ done that. Though there’s no sign of Reborn in the area at the moment.

Lambo sighs, moving into the office to drop his report on top of the already mountainous pile of paperwork. Normally he’s supposed to give it to Gokudera, but he spilled coffee on it while he was writing it, and got a lollipop stuck to one of the pages in the middle, and he doesn’t feel like getting yelled at about presentation. Tsuna _never_ yells when Lambo gets drinks, candy, hair products, and questionable other substances on his official reports. He just sighs exasperatedly and says “Ahhh Lambo…” which is preferable to Gokudera’s method of shaking him by the lapels.

“If someone catches you napping, you’ll be in trouble too,” Lambo comments, moving around the desk to shake Tsuna by the shoulder, “Hey, Nii-chan, wake up. Quick, before Reborn or Haru come in here and start throwing things at your head.”

Shaking doesn’t stir him, however, so Lambo begins poking a finger into his boss’s cheek.

Tsuna’s eyes blink open immediately, and he sits up, looking around with a befuddled expression.

“It’s nearly 2 pm, Boss, better get started on that paperwork,” Lambo teases, laughing at the panicked squawk he gets in response.

\--

Tsuna is sleeping.

He’s on one of the benches in the garden, slumped over a little, with his head rolling against his shoulder and drool hanging out of the corner of his mouth. It would be pretty extremely cute, if not for the fact that it’s raining, and the Vongola Boss is soaked to the bone.

“Wah, Tsuna!” exclaims Ryohei, hurrying over and throwing his jacket over top of the other man and slapping his cheeks enthusiastically. “You’re going to extremely catch a cold if you haven’t already! And then you’ll get a fever! And then you’ll be bedridden! And then Gokudera will panic and none of us will sleep for days!”

Tsuna’s eyes fly open and he jumps up with a surprised noise, looking down at his soaking form with dismay.

“Oh, oh no, what…” he trails off, looking absolutely bewildered.

Ryohei claps him on the shoulder, steering him inside.

“Don’t worry, I’ve fallen asleep in much more extreme places,” he grins.

\--

Tsuna is napping.

Yamamoto nearly doesn’t see him, the way he’s tucked away in a tiny alcove in the Vongola library. He’s kind of in an uncomfortable looking position, like he just collapsed from where he was standing and passed out there and then.

Yamamoto tsks under his breath while smiling, moving towards his friend, and trying to shift him into a more comfortable position without waking him up. But as he takes Tsuna’s hands to move them so that they’re no longer squashed underneath his body, his eyes open, and he sits up so abruptly that his head almost hits Yamamoto in the nose.

“Aw, oops,” Yamamoto says, moving back sheepishly, “Sorry Tsuna, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

Tsuna just stares at him, a perplexed furrow in his brow.

“I think the couch in the languages section might be a better place to nap anyways,” Yamamoto adds, grinning lopsidedly.

\--

Tsuna is asleep.

Chrome hesitates in the doorway of the kitchen, hands held nervously together. She’s not sure if she should enter, if she should disturb him. She’s not sure it’s her place. Yes, it is an odd, vulnerable place for her boss to be asleep, and yes, his face is currently resting in a bowl of oatmeal, but she still doesn’t want to overstep any boundaries.

But it occurs to her that if he turns his face slightly to the right, he may end up drowning in the oatmeal, and that just doesn’t bear thinking about.

So she steps forward, and gingerly cups his face and lifts it out of the oatmeal, intending to move the bowl aside and let his head rest back on the table, still asleep.

But as soon as she touches his cheeks, he jerks upwards, causing her to leap back, startled.

“Wh-,” he splutters, raising one hand to touch the goop on his face with an absolutely flabbergasted expression. Then he turns his gaze to Chrome, blinking.

She ducks her head a little, trying to conceal her slight smile behind one hand.

“Boss, breakfast ended _hours_ ago,” she says, voice serious.

\--

Tsuna is asleep again.

He is stretched out in the training room, looking for all accounts like someone took him down with a well-placed blow. But Hibari knows better. It is nearly impossible to catch Sawada off guard in a fight. He is quick, and he is sharp. That strange existence of his, of being a herd animal with teeth.

Sleeping so brazenly, open and unprotected, is something that carnivores do. And while Sawada is not without claws of his own, he usually allows himself to rest and repose only behind the closed doors of his office and private rooms. This is unusual. Hibari doesn’t like it.

So he stalks across the floor and, with purpose, punches Sawada in the face.

There’s the expected flailing of limbs, and yelps, and then Sawada’s on his feet, clutching his cheek with one hand, and the other held bracingly in front of him. He looks extremely disoriented. Hibari didn’t think Sawada was a drinker, but he’s beginning to suspect that he caught him in a moment of inebriated weakness.

“If you let your guard down like that again,” he warns lowly, “I’ll bite you to death.”

\--

Tsuna is dozing.

The meeting room is empty at the moment, but in about fifteen minutes the first of the representatives from the Vainde family will arrive, and having the Don Vongola passed out probably won’t make the best impression.

Gokudera sighs and swears under his breath, pushing his hair back away from his face. Is the Tenth really this worn out by everything? Gokudera already tries to help by handling the majority of the more banal paperwork, but if his sources are true, and Tsuna’s really just been passing out _everywhere_ lately, then he’s clearly not doing enough.

He sets his notes for the meeting down and walks around the large, moving to stand beside the Tenth and begin shaking his shoulder.

“Tenth,” he says softly, “Hey, _Juudaime,_ wake up.”

No response.

A sick, worried feeling begins curling in the pit of Gokudera’s stomach, and he bites it back. He’s not fifteen anymore and prone to fits of impassioned overreactions. Though he hasn’t _quite_ shaken off the deeply-ingrained paranoia.

He brushes Tsuna’s hair back away from his forehead and lets his hand rest there, peering down into the man’s face to make sure he can see movement, see life.

But the second their skin touches, Tsuna’s eyes flutter awake, and he straightens in his chair, looking about wildly. His gaze settles on Gokudera, and morphs into something absolutely mystified.

“It keeps happening!” he protests, sounding defensive. 

“Tenth,” Gokudera sighs, relieved, “Honestly, if you’re overworked, you just need to let me know. Don’t let Lambo fool you into thinking coffee’s an acceptable substitute for sleep.”

\--

Tsuna is snoozing.

He is fast asleep, and dead to the world. No outside noises can wake him, no touches, no violent shaking. He is in a deep slumber, and cannot be aroused from it.

_Slap!_

Tsuna shrieks and jumps up, clutching his cheek with one hand. His blurry, sleep addled vision clears in an instant, and he stares accusatorily at the adolescent standing in front of him, one hand still raised.

“Owwowow, _Reborn!”_ complains the young Boss, hand still pressed against his cheek.

Reborn just stares at him, a strangely contemplative expression on his face.

“I shot several bullets a few inches from your head, and you didn’t stir,” he says, eyes narrowed. “I kicked the back of your head and you didn’t move.”

Tsuna is suddenly are of the throbbing pain in his head, and his side, and his stomach, and all the other places Reborn apparently abused in his efforts to rouse him. He frowns. Reborn’s eyes are still narrowed.

“There is something going on here,” he concludes, “I’m going to find out what. Try to stay awake in the meantime.”

\--

As far as ‘assassination’ plots go, it’s a fairly arbitrary one.

The perpetrator had wanted to cripple the Vongola, but not in a way that would cause a power vacuum, or a revenge plot, or any sort of explosive event that would ripple across all of Italy. They had not wanted to _kill_ the Vongola boss. Instead, they intended to send him into a deep sleep, one that no one would be able to explain, or rouse him from.

“I can’t believe that man managed to hit Tsuna with the bullet _seven times,”_ grouses Reborn, he and Lal standing over the fallen body of the man they’ve just apprehended. “We’re overhauling the entirety of the security personnel on the estate. Everyone’s fired and being shipped to Bolivia.”

“ _I_ don’t understand why he kept firing the same bullet if it clearly didn’t work,” Lal comments, eyebrow raised, “You all managed to wake Tsuna up every time, didn’t you?”

“Only with direct skin on skin contact,” Reborn explains, “But it _is_ odd. A bullet whose effects are cured by a simple touch doesn’t seem very effective.”

Lal makes a noise of agreement, before looking down at the ‘assassin’s’ fallen body and raising an eyebrow.

“Looks like the ammunition box is still on him,” she says, leaning down and picking it up. “With a set of instructions attached. What happened to burning sensitive information immediately after reading? Everyone today is so sloppy…”

She trails off as her eyes scan the paper, her eyebrows shooting upwards. She looks up at Reborn, then back down at the box, then at Reborn.

“Something of interest?” he asks, raising an eyebrow of his own.

Lal stares at him, and the surprised look on her face morphs into something more amused.

“I’d say so,” she replies, “It states that the bullet’s effects are only supposed to be curable by, and I quote, ‘a loving touch, most effectively in instances of true love.’”

Lal keeps staring at Reborn. His face remains impassive.

“Like we said, the bullets must have been defective,” he states, ignoring the slow smile spreading across Lal’s face.

“Or Tsuna’s exactly the type of boss we all thought he would be,” she counters smugly, “Not Machiavellian, not feared and respected through fear, but loved, and followed through love.”

“This isn’t a fairy tale,” Reborn states, short.

“Well then,” Lal replies with a smirk, “It’s nice to see that curses broken by love exist in this shitty reality as well.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> a silly short thing. 
> 
> KHR is a weird anime. if you think critically about it it deserves a lot of criticism, but it is without a doubt one of the most fun, engaging animes I've watched, and has some of the most interesting characters. also, yields some of the best, most introspective and detailed fanfic I've ever read. it also hits some of my fave tropes, including found families, an individual who inspires extreme loyalty, and the unassuming badass character type. another fandom I'm surprised I've never written for before.


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